Thanks to everyone for the input. I hope nobody minds me putting my ideas for my levels on this forum--I tried on the Forge, but nobody seems to post over there.
If anyone got the idea I was trying to make the facts fit the story I'd already come up with, I'm afraid they were right. My various theories about the Fall of Muirthemne were largely based on an idea I had for the first level in the campaign--where six jmen diggers (the "12 journeyman" monster) get together to bury the dead emperor and your job is to keep any ghols from getting close enough to grab a snack. It was a seductive idea because all the stuff was there already: the Muirthemne mesh from "Redemption" (it has more stuff in it than "Walls of Muirthemne"), the 12 Jman, the dead emperor... a little scripting finesse and voila. It would be much tougher to make a level where some heron guard vets fight their way into the Palace and grab their tiles, then fight their way back out. Which raises a question: did Balor occupy the ruins, or was that just something Soulblighter hit on (perhaps looking for the Ibis Crown?). Maybe the returning folks make a daring raid to rescue the emperor's body... ah, heck, give me a week and I'll think of something. I've already got two levels in the beta stage--one where you fight ghosts made out of blood in the new desert outside Muirthemne and a hero level where a jman hero (mass healing, faster, tougher) and a heron guard hero (as is) sneak into a strip mine where the few survivors of Muirthemne and a lot of the dead are being turned into Thrall. I've given it the amazingly imaginative working title of "Thrall Factory".
The bits about mutinous young heron guard recruits was an attempt to justify a level I really want to do, where your beefy jmen take on an equal force of evil heron guard. Maybe I can have them be under a binding dream or something (something that can't be healed, or it would be your hippocratic duty not to kill them!) Another level would be a blockade runner kind of thing where one of the Nine is under siege by a massive army of ghols and has been mortally wounded... unless you can sneak in a jman and heal him, he's goners. The final level would be veerrry tough--you have to present yourself to Alric for judgment while being attacked by light forces, and if you kill even one of them you lose. Of course, Alric, being the shrewd guy he is, will forgive you in exchange for your healing ability.
There would also be a secret level where, if you're sick to death of jmen at this point, you get to play a team of dwarves whose job is to blow the roots off a parade of jmen, including some seriously hax0red versions I've created accidentally... I call this one "Jzilla".
Any comments, suggestions, feedback would be more than welcome. I'd especially like to know if anyone has found a way to link to a secret level (otherwise it's just going to be a matter of shift-clicking on new game...).
